Rock grave

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Walkable living and grave caves on the steep coast of Mátala, Crete

The rock grave , rock chamber grave or rock grave is an artificially created cave that was originally used for burial purposes. The British Aidan Dodson defines the rock grave as graves carved into the rock that have no noteworthy brick superstructure. Rock graves have been found in various cultures since the Neolithic Age . In the central Mediterranean area, rock tombs are particularly typical of the Copper Age .

The term primarily refers to a hollowing out of the natural rock ( English rock-cut tomb ) for burials, which creates a definitional, but not necessarily also a cultural-historical proximity to “ stone boxes ”. Ruth Whitehouse is convinced that there is no connection to megalithic architecture.

distribution

Prehistory and early history

Various rock tombs

Burials in artificial excavations can be found in Europe, the Middle East (including Lambousa in Cyprus ) and Egypt. In Europe they come mainly from the Copper and Bronze Ages . The oldest examples are in the central Mediterranean area. The most complex structures can be found in Malta , Sardinia and the Balearic Islands . These are independent insular developments.

In France z. B. the caves at Arles and the Tombeau des Géants to the rock graves, on the Iberian Peninsula the complex of Alcaide, also known as the rock dome grave, on the Balearic Islands the Cuevas , on Malta ( Bur Mghez , Xemxija ) and on Sardinia the "oven graves" or the Domus de Janas (houses of the fairies) or unique structures such as Campu Luntanu and in Sicily (e.g. Thapsos ). Individual examples can also be found on Orkney .

The prerequisite for an already Neolithic occurrence was relatively soft rock that could be worked with tools from the Stone Age. This was mainly sedimentary rock, for example the " Globigerinen " limestone on Malta. Since the work required great effort, the older Sardinian Domus de Janas are also barely a cubic meter in size.

According to Whitehouse, the earliest examples of rock tombs are found in Italy and Sicily. In Italy, a few specimens date back to the 5th millennium; they are caves for individual burials. But burials in pits or natural caves were far more common. Only in the 3rd millennium did rock graves become the rule. In southern and eastern Italy, furnace-shaped rock tombs were mainly used during the Copper Age. In the Bronze Age ( Apennine culture ), with a few exceptions, burial again prevailed. In Sicily, too, rock tombs did not begin until the Copper Age. In Malta they begin in the zebugg phase , in Sardinia with the Ozieri culture , so that they can be used or reused up to the bell beaker culture . In the west, rock tombs occur mainly in the Balearic Islands (poorly dated) and at the mouth of the Tagus . Dates are sparse and point to an origin in the 3rd millennium.

Egypt

Entrance to a rock tomb in Beni Hasan, picture by David Roberts , 1838

From the 4th millennium, rock tombs were also dug in the Levant and Egypt. Egyptian rock tombs usually have an above-ground burial chapel. Most of the graves are located below the burial chapel and are connected to it by a vertical shaft, but they can also be some distance from the chapel. Rock tombs initially had the same structure as mastabas , but became increasingly complex. Rock graves with particularly sophisticated architecture can be found especially under the 6th Dynasty and in the first intermediate period. The necropolis of Beni Hasan has numerous rock tombs by nomarchs , which were built between the first intermediate period and the 12th dynasty . Tools made of stone and copper, later also bronze, were used to build the rock graves. A New Kingdom stonemasonry settlement has been excavated in Deir el-Medina .

Bronze age

The excavation of harder rocks was made possible with bronze and iron age tools and so there are now more and larger cavities. They lie in an area from the Orient via Cyprus (Salamis) to the Orkney (Dwarfie Stane - dwarf stone - on Hoy ). In the Cyclades, rock tombs were built mainly in the early Bronze Age.

Iron age

The Urartians used rock graves especially for rich burials.

Lycian rock tomb in Kaş

Antiquity

Eugène Delacroix , Entombment of Christ (1859)

Special forms

See also

literature

  • Dieter Arnold : rock grave . In: Lexicon of Egyptian architecture . Artemis & Winkler, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-760-81099-3 , pp. 77-79.
  • Hans Bonnet: rock grave . In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History . 3rd unchanged edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 182f.
  • Aidan Dodson : Egyptian rock-cut tombs . Shire, Princes Risborough 1991, ISBN 0-747-80128-2 , ( Shire Egyptology 14).
  • Francis DK Ching, Mark Jarzombek, Vikramaditya Prakash: A Global History of Architecture - Rock-Cut Tombs
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .
  • Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . In: Antiquity 46, 1972, No. 184, ISSN  0003-598X , pp. 275-281.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aidan Dodson, Egyptian rock-cut tombs . Shire, Princes Risborough 1991, 7.
  2. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 275 ff.
  3. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity pp. 46, 280.
  4. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 275 ff, fig. 2.
  5. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 280 ff.
  6. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 275.
  7. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 276.
  8. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 277.
  9. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 279.
  10. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 279.
  11. ^ Aidan Dodson, Egyptian rock-cut tombs . Shire, Princes Risborough 1991, 7.
  12. ^ Aidan Dodson, Egyptian rock-cut tombs . Shire, Princes Risborough 1991, 11.
  13. ^ Aidan Dodson, Egyptian rock-cut tombs . Shire, Princes Risborough 1991, 11-12.
  14. ^ Aidan Dodson, Egyptian rock-cut tombs . Shire, Princes Risborough 1991, 57.
  15. ^ Aidan Dodson, Egyptian rock-cut tombs . Shire, Princes Risborough 1991, 58.
  16. ^ Ruth Whitehouse: The rock-cut tombs of the central Mediterranean . Antiquity 46, 278.
  17. Latife Summerer, Alexander von Kienlin, Achaemenid Impact in Paphlagonia: Rupestral Tombs in the Amnias Valley. In: J. Nieling - E. Rehm, Achaemenid Impact at the Black Sea Region. Communication of Powers , Aarhus 2010, 195–221.